Ibthan

Mohammed Abu Fana

23/01/2006

Final Report

During October 2000 a salvage excavation was conducted in Ibthan (North) in the Sharon (Permit No. A-3308*; map ref. NIG 20469–70/69720–30; OIG 15469–70/19720–30; HA-ESI 109), after ancient remains were damaged while preparing the area for construction. The excavation, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, was directed, photographed and surveyed by M. Abu-Fana.

The site is situated along the edge of a hill covered with dark soil, whose surface slopes from south to north. Most of the remains had been swept away by erosion and scattered across the surface of the site. A single excavation square was opened where the tops of walls and pottery vessels were discerned (Fig. 1).

Two perpendicular walls (W1, W2) that formed two rooms (L103, L107) were exposed. The walls, founded on bedrock, were built of fieldstones (0.25 × 0.40 × 0.60 m) laid in two rows and preserved two courses high. The stones on the western side of W1 were especially large. Some had a hewn groove into which a threshold was probably inserted. Next to it was a hewn depression for a door socket. No floors were found. The ground excavated near the walls was dark brown alluvium that contained small fieldstones, masonry stones and many fragments of pottery vessels. The collected potsherds, dating mainly to the Hellenistic period, were mostly body fragments of bowls, cooking pots and jars, as well as an Attic lamp, dating to the fourth century BCE. Several potsherds dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods, including a jug for heating water.